Courses tagged with "Information networks" (42)

This course is an introduction to basic NMR theory. Examples of biochemical data obtained using NMR are summarized along with other related experiments. Students participate in detailed study of NMR imaging techniques, including discussions of basic cross-sectional image reconstruction, image contrast, flow and real-time imaging, and hardware design considerations. Exposure to laboratory NMR spectroscopic and imaging equipment is included.

This course provides an intensive introduction to artificial intelligence and its applications to problems of medical diagnosis, therapy selection, and monitoring and learning from databases. It meets with lectures and recitations of 6.034 Artificial Intelligence, whose material is supplemented by additional medical-specific readings in a weekly discussion session. Students are responsible for completing all homework assignments in 6.034 and for additional problems and/or papers.

The focus of the course is on medical science and practice in the age of automation and the genome, both present and future.

It ncludes an analysis of the computational needs of clinical medicine, a review systems and approaches that have been used to support those needs, and an examination of new technologies.

This course presents the main concepts of decision analysis, artificial intelligence, and predictive model construction and evaluation in the specific context of medical applications. The advantages and disadvantages of using these methods in real-world systems are emphasized, while students gain hands-on experience with application specific methods. The technical focus of the course includes decision analysis, knowledge-based systems (qualitative and quantitative), learning systems (including logistic regression, classification trees, neural networks), and techniques to evaluate the performance of such systems.

This course explores the theory and practice of scientific modeling in the context of auditory and speech biophysics. Based on seminar-style discussions of the research literature, the class draws on examples from hearing and speech, and explores general, meta-theoretical issues that transcend the particular subject matter. Examples include: What is a model? What is the process of model building? What are the different approaches to modeling? What is the relationship between theory and experiment? How are models tested? What constitutes a good model?

This course provides a foundation for understanding the relationship between molecular biology, developmental biology, genetics, genomics, bioinformatics, and medicine. It develops explicit connections between basic research, medical understanding, and the perspective of patients. Principles of human genetics are reviewed. We translate clinical understanding into analysis at the level of the gene, chromosome and molecule; we cover the concepts and techniques of molecular biology and genomics, and the strategies and methods of genetic analysis, including an introduction to bioinformatics. Material in the course extends beyond basic principles to current research activity in human genetics.

An introductory course in the molecular biology of the auditory system. First half focuses on human genetics and molecular biology, covering fundamentals of pedigree analysis, linkage analysis, molecular cloning, and gene analysis as well as ethical/legal issues, all in the context of an auditory disorder. Second half emphasizes molecular approaches to function and dysfunction of the cochlea, and is based on readings and discussion of research literature.

This course covers the growth, development and structure of normal bone and joints, the biomechanics of bone connective tissues, and their response to stress, calcium and phosphate homeostasis. Additional topics include regulation by parathyroid hormone and vitamin D, the pathogenesis of metabolic bone diseases and diseases of connective tissues, joints and muscle with consideration of possible mechanisms and underlying metabolic derangements.

Lecturers

This course is a survey of perceptual and cognitive aspects of the psychology of music, with special emphasis on underlying neuronal and neurocomputational representations and mechanisms. Basic perceptual dimensions of hearing (pitch, timbre, consonance/roughness, loudness, auditory grouping) form salient qualities, contrasts, patterns and streams that are used in music to convey melody, harmony, rhythm and separate voices. Perceptual, cognitive, and neurophysiological aspects of the temporal dimension of music (rhythm, timing, duration, temporal expectation) are explored. Special topics include comparative, evolutionary, and developmental psychology of music perception, biological vs. cultural influences, Gestaltist vs. associationist vs. schema-based theories, comparison of music and speech perception, parallels between music cognition and language, music and cortical action, and the neural basis of music performance.

This eight-session course, designed for a mixed group of first, second, third and fourth-year medical students, uses literary narratives and poetry to study ethical issues in medicine. This methodology emphasizes the importance of context, contingency, and circumstances in recognizing, evaluating, and resolving moral problems. The seminar will focus on developing the skills of critical and reflective reading that increase effectiveness in clinical medicine. Texts will include short fiction and poetry by authors such as Woolf, Chekhov, Carver, Kafka, Hurston, Marquez and Tolstoy. The instructor will provide necessary philosophic and literary context at the beginning of each session, the balance devoted to class discussion. During the course, students will keep a reading journal that examines the meanings of illness, the moral role of the physician, and the relevance of emotions, culture, faith, values, social realities, and life histories to patient care.

This course focuses on neural structures and mechanisms mediating the detection, localization and recognition of sounds. Discussions cover how acoustic signals are coded by auditory neurons, the impact of these codes on behavioral performance, and the circuitry and cellular mechanisms underlying signal transformations. Topics include temporal coding, neural maps and feature detectors, learning and plasticity, and feedback control. General principles are conveyed by theme discussions of auditory masking, sound localization, musical pitch, speech coding, and cochlear implants.

Topics for this course are based primarily on reading and discussions of original research literature that cover the analysis as well as the underlying physical and physiological mechanisms of acoustic signals in the auditory periphery. Topics include the acoustics, mechanics, and hydrodynamics of sound transmission; the biophysical basis for cochlear amplification; the physiology of hair-cell transduction and synaptic transmission; efferent feedback control; the analysis and coding of simple and complex sounds by the inner ear; and the physiological bases for hearing disorders.

This course provides a comprehensive overview of human pathology with emphasis on mechanisms of disease and diagnostic medicine. Topics include:

• Cellular Mechanisms of Disease
• Molecular Pathology
• Pathology of Major Organ Systems
• Review of Diagnostic Tools from Traditional Surgical Pathology to Diagnostic Spectroscopy
• Functional and Molecular Imaging
• Molecular Diagnostics

In addition to lectures, one of the two weekly sessions includes a 2-3 hour laboratory component. Periodically, time will also be devoted to minicases.

Lecturers